Performance testing new Leddar technology to assess operational stability and accuracy under remote extreme outdoor environmental conditions

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Leddar is a new, patented low-cost light-weight low-power-consumption ranging technology based on optical time-of-flight principles developed by Leddartech in Quebec. The technology has broad application potential, with current client application developments ranging from highway traffic monitoring to production-line quality control. As yet, remote outdoor environmental monitoring is an untested and unproven application area where significant potential exists. However, before such application development is possible, the stability, accuracy and reliability of the baseline technology under a range of extreme and controlled environmental conditions must be evaluated. Such data is desperately needed to assist with new sensor design, as well as validation of the technology for potential clients and devlopers. The University of Lethbridge is well positioned to support this product design and validation due to our in-house expertise with lidar (light detection and ranging), data logger programming and due to operating an alpine research study site on a ski hill where automatic weather stations have been set up to monitor a range of environmental conditions. The proposed project is expected to be carried out from August 2015 to January 2016. Specific research objectives include: 1) Design and build a control and data logging interface; 2) Design and build a winterized power supply; 3)Install concurrently with environmental sensors to test leddar performance under a range of conditions; 4)Report on leddar module performance. Testing to be conducted at three automatic weather stations on the Castle ski Hill, spanning an elevation range of 1400 to 2500 masl and encountering temperatures down to -40 deg C and wind speeds exceeding 100 knts during winter. Leddar range accuracy and data collection stability will be monitored continuously during all conditions. For each installation location, the Leddar sensors will be co-located with existing instruments that are continuously monitoring temperature, precipitation, snow depth, incoming shortwave radiation, net radiation and wind speed.